Effect of growth-interrupted method on quality of AlGaAs/GaAs multiple quantum wells prepared by MBE

AlGaAs/GaAs multi-quantum well (MQW) was prepared by molecular beam epitaxy(MBE) with growth-interrupted heterointerface (GIH) method and continuous growth (CG) method, respectively. The microstructures of the MQWs were characterized by double-crystal X-ray rocking curve (DCRC) and atomic force microscopy (AFM), and the photoluminescence (PL) properties of the MQWs were also studied. The MQWs grown with GIH method show that higher order satellite peaks of Pendellösung fringes are observed in DCRC, the roughness of surface is much reduced in AFM, and the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of exciton line is much narrower in PL. The results indicate that the GIH method reduces the monolayer growth step density at the heterointerface due to the migration of surface atoms for a few minutes growth interruption, and substantially improves the quality of AlGaAs/GaAs MQWs.